Two.

Two years...

We have been parent for whole 2 years now.  Sometimes it feels like a nanosecond and the other feels like 100 years (obvi the really tough times make it seem longer).

We celebrated Ms. Thang's second birthday with a little get together at our tiny townhouse with all of the grand (and great grand) parents and a few friends. 

For months now MM has been saying "One day, Mary Margaret get a bike!" and Saturday was that day.

Honestly, she's in love with the "holmot" and the bell on the trike most of all.

We forced a cardio and weight bearing exercise on all of the guests' parent by forcing them to drag, push, and carry their children and/or children's vehicle up a not-small hill to the park.

If we were really looking to draw attention we would have carried a boom box alternating "Happy" and "Who run the world" on repeat, but alas we didn't.

Our neighbor whose parents we've copied and had both children 2 months after they had each of their boys. Hopped right on that bandwagon. 

UGH...Postpartum like WHOA

After Nana pushed MM up the hill, refusing help, we sat her down with the little one so we could socialize with our friends.

The sweet saint, Mandi, who watches both of our girls and her own while I drink numerous cups of still warm coffee at work. Ohh and that is her husband, David.

Rich and his daughter who informed us that she was part eagle that fine Saturday

Semi-forced Nana hugs for the birthday girl. She will literally stay in a cuddling pose for .3487689 seconds before squirming loose.

Another sweet friend, Amy, who watched MM before she had her own cuddly smiley little girl 3 months before V was born. And of course she looks 1000x more amazing than yours truly. 

And Amy's beyond sweet little man. He is THE BEST at playing by himself. What a skill! He not only will get up at 5 AM, not wake up his parents and watch TV. But he chilled in the house and played with MM's toys and talked to my mother in law for most of the party.

Speaking of that, we had food and drinks and what-not but the kicker wasn't the obvious  bed sheet I used as a table cloth, but the lack of toys I provided for outside play... a grocery store Hello Kitty ball and a mini red wagon... Have fun kids. It was so depressing... I wish I'd had a lame picture of it, but no... we didn't take any pictures after the park.

Mary Margaret's dream of "Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Foods" as a party theme came true and we are listening to the sound of sweet (painful) tricycle bells ringing and the multiple requests for us to help with her holmot until the end of time.

Happy Birthday silly, independent, cleaver little girl. We love you so much and CONSTANTLY question how we were given the privilege of being your parents.

Pictures that make no sense

If you've every asked yourself "I wonder what it's like to get a cooking spice out of a toddler's eyes" let me confirm it's not fun.

After a long week at work, Charlie's dad, "Boom", invited him to attend an NC State football game on Saturday afternoon, which implied that I was solo parenting again today. Which honestly is fine because, Monday I'm back at work (all of the tears).

.256 seconds after Charlie left I was texting a good friend Meredith to come over and make scones with me, as that is just what we do. She came over with exactly all of the ingredients because I was look "busy" to actually see what I had here and what she needed to bring.

She was being super with MM and asking her to help mix things and pour things into the bowl when it came time to add the Clove. We had those measuring spoons that look like hearts, which I believe my mom had given out at my bridal shower or something, and of course we haven't upgraded because, why would we. Meredith asked "Do you think she can grab it" meaning the 1/4 measuring spoon of Clove "ohh sure" I said. Then BAM! MM had flung 1/4 tsp of Cloves directly into her face.

Aside from wanting to bust out laughing, I sprung into action telling her not to rub (but why would she not? It hurt) and trying to get her still enough to get the spice out. After a brilliant effort, I bribed her with an apple and she was right back to normal. We are still finding Clove coming out of her tear ducts, but all-in-all she's fine.

Pep talk about tummy time

Also, I'm not sure if it happens in all parts of the state, but here in Raleigh, NC. October is fruit-flies-come-and-invade-your-house-and-make-you-feel-like-a-discusting-person-and-drive-you-insane month. At first I thought it was just our house, with all of the breast milk and diapers and food and I'm a lazy cleaner. BUT after Meredith confirmed that she had them in her house too, and she is a pretty clean person.

She mentioned that she was going to Bed Bath and Beyond to see about getting a fruit fly cleaning something and ran into an old co-worker who mentioned blue Dawn (which apparently is the coconut oil of the cleaning world) and Apple Cider Vinegar.

After all the nap times (or cat naps for the infant...45 mins is NOT a real nap) we sped our way over the grocery to get said tools of the fruit fly killing variety. You need to put just enough Dawn to cover the bottom of a small dish then add vinegar and leave it for a while. I plan on putting a dish on every flat surface of the house.

It looks like she has fangs here, "I vant to suck your boobs"

Back to the grind, almost.

You'll come to find out, that is the cheesiest title ever.


I had written this post in my head as I was putting V to bed last night, and of course I can't remember it this afternoon as I try to get it down...

Either way, it revolved around the newest and essential member of our family.

Our coffee maker.

Photography at it's finest

Our past coffee maker was a hand-me-down from my parents who had used it for at least 5 years before we procured it and have used it for close to 4 ourselves.

My mom came this weekend with an early birthday present from my dad. It was picked out and wrapped by him and the whole 9 yards. I had no idea what it could be. Upon opening it, I was elated! I don't think I've ever been that excited about a kitchen appliance. I seriously talked about how excited I was for 30 minutes after opening it.

There isn't anything supremely fancy about the maker, it doesn't grind beans, or make espresso, or take a K-cup or anything like that. But, like any fancy lady, looks great in black (doesn't show dirt or stains) is sleek and unreachable by a toddler. It also has a handle to reach the place where the grinds go, so you don't have to dig your (potentially) nice clean hands into the basket to get the filter out.

Our past maker was white and had it's buttons on the bottom easily within toddler reach. So, if pre-set you might not know if a toddler had changed the brewing time to 3am (although, recently I've been up at 3 am... and coffee sounded good).

Birthday Boots with Houndstooth pants, natch. 

Anyway, this little beauty, along with the amazing "real" fall weather we have been having the last few days and pumpkin spice creamer is making up for V's not-getting-better nighttime sleeping habits and the persistent nap strike we're getting from MM. Along with the fact that today marks my last week of Maternity Leave (insert many many cries here).  It seems like it's been really fast and really, wonderfully slow all at the same time.

This is probably going to be the only talking I do about Maternity Leave (only because it's almost over) but if you know MM, she's not overly clingy and is very independent. Which is great because she doesn't "need me" all the time. The only thing is that over this 3 months I've gotten to spend more time with her than I ever have (even on my Maternity Leave with her, which was shorter than V's) and we have really gotten much closer. She is happier to see me when I come home from someplace without her, and she snuggles more with me daily. Yes, I have been able to see, first hand, how hard toddlers and newborn are to schedule and napping is a blessing and curse (at least for being social sometimes) but this time has been special for me as I have bonded with both of my girls in ways I haven't before and didn't really expect.

To touch back on V's sleeping. Naps are going well, most days, we're getting her used to napping in her crib (kudos to me for starting early) and she most of the time goes to sleep easily.

She is doing this thing, where she'll sleep for 4 hours at night and then wake up and fall asleep nursing, sleep for 1.5 hours then fall asleep nursing, sleep for 1.5 hours (maybe 2 if the stars aline) then I'll put her into bed with us and nurse her to sleep and we're up at 7-7:30 almost daily. That has been the normal for the last 2 weeks. BUT, on Friday we had a little happy hour at our house and I had a glass of wine (or 2...) and get this: V slept for 7 hours(!!!!) and then went back for another 3 hours. I really really hope she wasn't drunk from the wine but it hasn't happened since and I'm wracking my brain on what I could do to get that sweet sleeping back. Why tease me V???

OK, I'm done complaining about her and the sleeping. She's a much happier baby and big picture we have had great luck.

Keep an eye out for tearful posts coming about leaving my girls 4 days a week (thanks, work for the "part-time" option!!) in another city. I know they will be in amazing hands, but they won't be my hands and that hurts.

#teammccants